Victory at Sea: Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II

by Paul Kennedy and Ian Marshall (illustrator)

Paul Kennedy, a historian at Yale and author of the iconic The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, charts the rise of America as a global superpower. The book grew out of a plan to accompany the watercolours of the late Ian Marshall (the illustrations are a key part of the book) but ended up arguing for the key role of US naval supremacy, which was absolute by the end of World War II. “At no other time in history did the naval balances of power change as much,” he argues.